Born in 1896, Spencer Overton was a Baltimore building contractor and Rolling Road Member who was a dominant player from the 1930s to the 1960s. Mr. Overton won four Maryland Amateur Championships: 1936, 1945, and 1954, at the age of 58. He was five times a runner-up in 1937, 1938, 1940, 1944, and 1947 and was three times the Medalist: in 1936, 1942, and 1947. At 58, he had the unique distinction of becoming the oldest to win the Amateur, winning in three separate decades.
Little Specs, as he was known, won the 1947 Maryland Open and three Maryland Senior Amateurs: 1951, 1952, and 1963. Beyond the MSGA, he won the 1940 Middle Atlantic Amateur Championship, and the 1954 North & South Invitational Championship at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina. He qualified with an even-par 72, and after 4 rounds of match play, he was still at even par.
In an “Off the Tee” article in the Baltimore Sun on September 4, 1962, it stated, “That little man did it again. Age not-withstanding, and he’s all of 65 years old, Spencer Overton won his twenty-first Rolling Road Championship beating Ray Bassler, 1up over the 36-hole route”. Those 21 club championships were won in the 28 years from 1934 to 1962.
Mr. Overton scored an unbelievable total of 13 holes-in-one. It is hard to imagine another club player accumulating twenty-one club championships and thirteen holes-in-one.
Spencer S. Overton was inducted into the Maryland Sports Hall of Fame in 1982.
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